Home Page of Gerry Stahl
Gerry StahlAssociate Professor (with tenure)College of Information Science & TechnologyRush Building -- Room 40933rd & Market Streets, NW corner (physical address)Drexel University (map, directions)3141 Chestnut Street (mail address)Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA215-895-0544 (phone) 215-895-2494 (fax)http://gerrystahl.net/ (web)mailto:Gerryl@GerryStahl.net (email) |
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Welcome to my website! I am a researcher and professor of information science. My current research focuses on the Virtual Math Teams (VMT) project at Drexel's i-School and the Math Forum. Our research team uses chat interaction analysis to explore what takes place in online discussion of math by students. The background and motivation for this research in my previous research from 1990 to 2005 is presented in my book on Group Cognition.
My specialty is Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL). I am the founding Executive Editor of the International Journal of CSCL (ijCSCL). I have presented at every international CSCL conference (1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007) and have collected many resources about CSCL on my website.
All of my own publications are available on this site, listed chronologically. My CV details my academic career. My grants and research during the past 20 years are documented on this site. At Colorado and Drexel I have taught courses on CSCL and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)--how to design software to support collaborative learning, knowledge building and group cognition by online groups. My website also includes glimpses into my biography and personal life.
External Websites: CSCL-Community Blog -- ijCSCL website -- ijCSCL at Springer -- VMT Wiki -- VMT Lobby -- VMT website -- mathforum VMT wiki -- mathforum.org -- ISLS -- Amazon -- Google -- Scholar -- Wikipedia -- post to blog -- EM -- BlackBoard -- course spaces -- New York Times -- Weather
Virtual Math Teams (VMT) is a research project that I have directed since its inception in 2003 at the i-School and the Math Forum at Drexel University in Philadelphia. A group of PhD students, Math Forum staff, interdisciplinary faculty and visiting researchers collaborate on the project. We are developing an online service for math students to meet in small groups online to discuss challenging mathematical topics. We study the usage of the technological environment that we designed for this service, using a method of chat interaction analysis that we have refined. The project is guided by theories of collaborative learning, community knowledge building and group cognition, that we are exploring.
If you register and log into the VMT Lobby, you can enter the VMT Sandbox room to explore the functionality available there. You can also join a chat room or even create one to invite people to for collaborative online chats. There is an introduction to VMT for students, parents, teachers and researchers at the Math Forum VMT web page. A list of publications about the VMT project is also available there.
Here are some recent papers by the VMT research team:
Stahl, G., & Zhou, N. (2006). The virtual math teams
project: A global math discourse community. Paper presented at the
International Conference on Computers and Education (ICCE '06), Beijing, China.
Retrieved from http://gerrystahl.net/pub/icce2006.pdf.
...an introduction to the VMT project's goals and
procedures
Stahl, G. (2008). Social practices of group cognition in
virtual math teams. In S. Ludvigsen, A. Lund & R. Säljö (Eds.), Learning
in social practices. ICT and new artifacts - transformation of social and
cultural practices. Pergamon. Retrieved from http://gerrystahl.net/pub/cmc.pdf.
...an overview of the methodology of chat interaction analysis in
several of my recent studies from the VMT project
Sarmiento, J. & Stahl, G. (2008). Extending the joint
problem space: Time and sequence as essential features of knowledge
building. Paper presented at the International Conference of the Learning
Sciences (ICLS 2008), Utrecht, Netherlands. Retrieved from http://gerrystahl.net/pub/icls2008wiki.pdf.
...issues of temporality and sequentiality in the maintenance of a
joint problem space when collaboration has to be bridged
Stahl, G. & Cakir, M. (2008). Integrating synchronous
and asynchronous support for group cognition in online collaborative
learning. Paper presented at the International Conference of the Learning
Sciences (ICLS 2008), Utrecht, Netherlands. Retrieved from http://gerrystahl.net/pub/icls2008.pdf.
...issues in integrating an asynchronous community
knowledge-building space with a synchronous small-group problem-solving work
space
Zhou, N., Zemel,
A., & Stahl, G. (2008). Question asking in online small groups engaged in
collaborative math problem solving. Paper presented at the International
Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS 2008), Utrecht, Netherlands. Retrieved
from http://gerrystahl.net/pub/icls2008nan.pdf.
...a case study of question asking in the Virtual Math Teams (VMT)
research project
I published Group Cognition: Computer Support for Building Collaborative Knowledge in 2006. The book includes 21 chapters that review and extend my research during the past decade. The chapters report on several projects to develop software systems (including AI support for group formation, summarization and interanimation of perspectives), on approaches to analyze computer-mediated small-group interactions and on theoretical reflections leading to the notion of group cognition as foundational for collaborative learning.
Stahl, G. (2006). Group cognition: Computer support for building collaborative knowledge. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
The 500 page book is published by MIT Press and is available for a reasonable price from the following sources:
Amazon.com: http://amazon.com/gp/product/0262195399,
Barnes & Noble: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&isbn=0262195399&itm=1,
MIT Press: http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=10926.
(Pre-publication drafts of chapters are also available for review online at http://gerrystahl.net/mit/)
The International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (ijCSCL) was founded in 2006 to provide a venue for publication of leading papers on CSCL research. I co-founded the journal with Friedrich Hesse, the director of the Knowlede Media Research Center in Tuebingen, Germany, and with a Board of Editors including about 40 leading CSCL and CSCW researchers from around the world. The journal is published quarterly by Springer, sponsored by the International Society of the Learning Sciences. Anyone who joins ISLS is entitled to receive paper and electronic copies of the journal. To join ISLS, go to ISLS.org. The ISLS membership fee is deducted from registration at the CSCL or ICLS conference. Most major universities subscribe to ijCSCL as part of Springer's package of educational journals. The full text of all papers in ijCSCL are available for free at ijCSCL.org. For instructions on submitting a paper to ijCSCL, go to ijCSCL.org. A book review and the introductions to previous issues are available on my ijCSCL page
I have tried to gather some resources for people interested in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning and for the community of CSCL researchers. I wrote some overviews of the field from my perspective:
Stahl, G. (2008). Chat on collaborative knowledge building.
QWERTY, 3 (1). Retrieved from http://gerrystahl.net/pub/qwerty08.pdf.
...an informal discussion of my personal perspective on
computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL)
Stahl, G. (2008). Human-human interaction and group
learning. Paper presented at the Human-Computer Interaction Consortium,
Frasier, CO. Retrieved from http://gerrystahl.net/pub/hcic2008.pdf.
...a discussion of technology and pedagogy in the VMT project and
in my HCI course
Stahl, G., Koschmann, T., & Suthers, D. (2006).
Computer-supported collaborative learning: An historical perspective. In R. K.
Sawyer (Ed.), Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences. (pp. 409-426).
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. in
English, in
simplified Chinese, in
traditional Chinese, in
Spanish, in
Portuguese, in
German, in
Romanian.
...an overview of the history and issues of
CSCL. It provides numerous references for further study and outlines a direction
for future work. The view of CSCL, its origins and its future is very much a
particular perspective -- that of the authors.
I post a CSCL-Community blog. I compiled a list of CSCL books on Amazon, I contributed to Wikipedia articles:
CSCL-Community blog: http://cscl-community.blogspot.com/.
...news for people interested in CSCL, including announcements of
new papers in ijCSCL.
Amazon listmania -- CSCL books: http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/listmania/fullview/R2OYK7US8LYVPN/.
...a bibliography of seminal books on CSCL, CSCL conference
proceedings, Springer series of CSCL books, etc.
Wikipedia article on CSCL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Supported_Collaborative_Learning.
...a general description of the reserach field of
Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning.
Wikipedia article on Group Cognition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_cognition.
...a general presentation of the concept of Group
Cognition.
Additional resources related to CSCL -- including a number of videos -- are available from the CSCL page of this site.
My publications are available here organized in a couple of ways. The most up-to-date and useful is the chronological listing. My older writings are categorized by genre; this collection includes informal essays, grant proposals and other materials that are not all included in the chronological list. My CV organizes my professional publications by type and peer-review status. I try to make all of my publications freely available on this site in full text, searchable by Google and Scholar.
I am currently working on two books related to group cognition in the Virtual Math Teams Project:
An edited volume in Springer's CSCL book series: Studying
Virtual Math Teams.
A collection of papers by the
VMT research team and collaborating researchers, including case studies,
theoretical reflections and methods of analyzing and representing online
interaction.
A monograph in MIT Press's Acting with Technology book
series: Explorations
of Group Cognition.
An extended fine-grained
analysis of a four-hour VMT session among three math students.
My courses are heavily computer-supported. A consequence of this is that the course materials and even the student work is freely available for everyone to share. My teaching at Colorado and Drexel is documented on my teaching page. Recent courses on designing Web 2.0 software to support collaborative learning, community knowledge building and group cognition are completely documented on their wiki sites:
Spring 2007, HCI: Designing
Social Interaction Software.
...designing software to
support the VMT user community.
Winter 2008, HCI: Designing
IPL Social Interaction.
...designing software to
support the Internet Public Library.
Spring 2008, HCI: Designing
for CSCL.
...designing software to support the CSCL
research community.
Although most of my research during the past several years has been related to the VMT project, I worked on a variety of projects earlier. Since the development of the Web I have documented my research on my website:
Research at Drexel. grant proposals at Drexel and the Math Forum
Research in Europe ITCOLE project, BSCL, Synergia
Research in Colorado WebGuide, State the Essence, Organizational Memory, Articulate Learners, Gamble Gulch, L3D Lab, Communications Theory
Research previously Hermes, OMOL, WebNet, CIE, TCA, CREW, OptoNet, consulting and programming
My curriculum vitae (in HTML Web and PDF printing formats) contains exhaustive listings of my academic activities, with links to the original source documents. For my tenure review in Fall of 2007, I compiled additional documentation of my activities at Drexel for internal and external review.
In the mid-1990's, when the Web was young, I started my website in much the same format as it has now. I experimented with including both professional and family materials on the same site. As you can see from an archived version of my site from 1997, it has maintained that format for over a decade now. The site still includes biographical data about my education and pictures of friends, family, home, recreation and leisure time activities, including a gallery of my sculpture.
